Teaching practices used by teachers influence students' achievement of learning outcomes. These practices may be explored from students' perspectives. Because gender may influence students' perceptions of learning environments, this study explored gender differences in students' perceptions of teaching practices employed in their biology…

The author introduces the Passive Dynamic Walker robot, which is constructed with LEGOs and operates without any electronics. Building this robot offers an excellent platform for investigating center of mass and other important physics and engineering concepts.

Given the emerging evidence on the importance of learning content-specific vocabulary in the early years, many early childhood teachers try to incorporate science vocabulary teaching as part of classroom activities. In this article, the authors argue for the importance of teaching science vocabulary in engaging ways using read-aloud and the…

Anatomical education is very important in understanding the internal structure of the body and the mechanism of life, especially for the medical profession, including nursing. However, in Japan, students have a few opportunities of getting anatomical education using animals before they enter university. The different step-by-step anatomical…

There is a large science attainment gap between students with and without special educational needs, and many students with developmental disabilities (DD) struggle to access the mainstream science programmes of study. The purpose of the present project was to pilot the use of the Early Science (ES) curriculum over a six week period with nine…

Fieldwork is an important part of biology as well as science and biology education. However, teachers perceive several reasons for the limited use of fieldwork in schools. Further, outdoor education is often organised as a single fieldtrip guided by outdoor educators, and little research has been done on fieldwork as a regular part of formal…

Twenty years ago, a major curriculum revision at a large, comprehensive university in the Western United States led to the implementation of an integrated lecture/laboratory (studio) experience for our engineering students taking general chemistry. Based on these twenty years of experience, construction of four purpose-built studio classrooms to…

The purpose of this study is to examine the learning outcomes in the curriculum of Biology course in terms of reflective thinking skills. It is a documentary qualitative research. The target area of the study is the curriculum of the Biology course in secondary school level. Biology course curriculum of grades 9-12 was included in the research…

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was fourfold: examine the pre-service science teachers' pedagogical orientations about science teaching; examine the pre-service science teachers' beliefs about science teaching; establish the extent to which the pre-service science teachers' pedagogical orientations correlate with…

This dissertation begins with a description of the territory that lies between sociocultural theory, education, and the natural world. It consists of three separate studies that all focus on moments of science teaching and learning that are intentionally situated outdoors. The second, third and fourth chapters are written as somewhat independent…

This study explored the interplay between science teachers' pedagogical beliefs, scientific evidence, and diversity. This study adopts a sociocultural view of science that views science as a cultural way of knowing, and acknowledges that it is laden with cultural understandings, interpretations, and a language of its own. This paper reports…

The narrowed curriculum continues to be challenging for science education as teachers strive to impart content that is on the high-stakes assessments. This Qualitative multiple-case study investigated four experienced, elementary classroom teachers' use of writing in science. It was designed to provide insight into teaching beliefs and practices…

An essential component skill of monitoring and reflection during problem solving is work checking, a process used by experts while solving problems to determine if their solution is achieving the goal. The results of work checking may reveal errors or inconsistencies, indicating a need for iteration. Using think-aloud interviews, the authors…

In this paper, insight into forensic science students' experiences of a case-based scenario with an interdisciplinary guided-inquiry experience in chemistry and biology is presented. Evaluation of student experiences and interest showed that the students were engaged with all aspects of the case-based scenario, including the curriculum theory…

In school districts and charter school networks nationwide, instructional leaders are developing plans to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year. While different communities are resuming in-person learning at their own unique paces, all school leaders have their eyes on the same…